Selected Publications
- Bauder, H., ed. (2019) Putting Family First: Migration and Integration in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
- Darling, J. and Bauder, H. (2019) Sanctuary Cities and Urban Struggles: Rescaling Migration, Citizenship, and Rights. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Bauder, H. and Gonzales, D. (2018) “Municipal Responses to ‘Illegality’: Urban Sanctuary Across National Contexts.” Social Inclusion 6(1): 124–134.
- Bauder, H. (2017) Migration Borders Freedom. London: Routledge.
- Bauder, H. (2011) Immigration Dialectic: Imagining Community, Economy and Nation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
FRIAS Project
Urban Sanctuary Policies and Solidarity Practices in Germany and Switzerland
Cities play a leading role in addressing problems that arise when people migrate. While migration has driven urban population growth and fostered innovation, cities have responded to the arrival of newcomers with new ideas of belonging and membership. One idea is the “sanctuary city”: a city that protects and includes newcomers who are denied legal status by nation states. These cities express solidarity towards migrants and refugees, provide policing, health, educational, and recreational services to residents, independent of status, and refuse to cooperate with national authorities seeking to punish, detain, and deport non-status residents.
The proposed research consists of an empirical study comparing urban sanctuary policies and solidarity practices in Germany and Switzerland. Although the label “sanctuary city” tends to be used mostly in Anglo-American cities, innovative urban approaches that work toward the inclusion of migrants and refugees without full legal status also exist in these European countries. The proposed international comparison explores the commonalities and differences in the ways in which cities approach belonging and membership in light of different national legal structures, political configurations, historical circumstances, and variable geopolitical challenges. Learning about urban approaches in countries with vastly different circumstances will help other cities in Europe and elsewhere to develop effective and novel responses to the challenges that arise when a portion of a city’s residents lack full national status.